Category: Housing Professional

Giving back to a community can be a great thing. Usually when we think of out community service we think of picking up trash or shoveling snow in the winter. However, there are more not so subtle ways to help a community and give them more than they had before. This is what Barbara Stokes an appreciative business owner is doing for the community of Cullman. Read more at Business Insider.

Cullman is a town within Alabama situated alongside interstate 65 and Barbara Stokes is bringing them a brand-new industry in her company stokes Development LLC. Barbara Stokes herself is a graduate of Mercer university with studies in Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Her company creates Green structure homes that are usually occupied by natural disaster victims. The company is supported and partnered with FEMA the government relief company. Barbara’s experience working with Boeing and he Pisces corporation prepared her for a job such as this. Her company’s introduction into the area is sparked by a memory of how the people in the area were so friendly. I guess this goes to show being friendly can go along way and it has. Barbara Stokes company will provide 80 jobs initially to local employees. This number will grow to about 300 full time employees by the third year of operation. Additionally, most of the material used to build these green homes will be locally grown, built and farmed giving a boost to the areas economy. This could be very lucrative for all parties involved as Stoke’s plans to build between 500 and 600 homes that are mold, mildew, hurricane, and even fire resistant will require a lot of materials. Furthermore, the houses could prove to be useful in the future as you never know when a natural disaster will arrive and its good to have some facilities to possibly use for protection. Read more about Barbara Stokes at WDRB.com.

The community is happy to have Barbara Stokes bring her business as Ron Drinkard the director of ACFI says “This community is so fortunate to haver someone of this caliber”. The funny thing is Barbara Stokes feels appreciate of the citizens, I guess everyone wins in this situation. This mother of three is showing us how community service is done and the city of Cullman is happy to have it.